| Author | Message | ||
     Jon Rothwell Unregistered guest Posted From: 61.9.128.174 |
My 1966 T1 has paint cracking off everywhere. The red primer underneath is sound but the 1-2mm thick paint is hopeless. I intend to strip the body to bare metal and repaint, has anyone else done this and if so what method did you use? | ||
| Mark Szozda Unregistered guest Posted From: 210.56.70.134 |
Firstly remove all the parts that are not getting painted and the interior door trim. Hire somebody to remove front and rear windscreens. Buy a orbital sander from a hardware store and some paint stripper liquid. Sanding back the paint will take several days of hard work. There are firms will sand blast your car of paint. If you really want to go over the top you can strip the car to the bare shell and have it acid bathed. The acid eats away the rust and old paint. If you don't get rid of the primer the paint may flake in a few years | ||
| Richard Treacy Yet to post message Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 18 Registered: 4-2003 |
Careful: sannblasting will destroy your aluminium panels (doors, bonnet, boot) and dig out all the lead in no time. RT. | ||
| Bill Coburn Yet to post message Username: bill_coburn Post Number: 15 Registered: 4-2003 |
The other hazard with sandblasting is heat. The friction of the blast is obviously very great which generates heat and concentrated heat on a thin metal panel will produce a bump which can only be removed by a genius with a wheeling machine!! Door panels are the greatest risk. Lots and lots of stripper is the way to go. Qantas used to use a chemical stripper (Gibson?) that you could spray on (ever thought of stripping a 747?)but that seems to be no longer available. The very best stripper in Australia now is Wattyl AP608 which should be used liberally. It is a filthy job and requires about 500 copies of the Sydney Morning herald to wipe up and get rid of the mess. One last tip is be very suspect of metallic body fillers. These were applied with appropriate fluxes (fluxii?)and over the following 50 years or so leach their way to the surface. Paint does not stick to this stuff very well. One of the most glaring instances is the area around the guard mounted parking lights on a Mk VI Bentley. Apart from all that it is plain sailing. | ||
| Jon Rothwell Unregistered guest Posted From: 61.9.128.173 |
Thanks for the good advice. I've been using stripper with some success, but it looks like being a long job due to multiple accident and rust repairs done in the cars past. In places the paint and filler has been coming off the bare metal in 6" chunks!! On the bright side though I'm finding more metal than rust. | ||
| Bill Coburn Yet to post message Username: bill_coburn Post Number: 16 Registered: 4-2003 |
Jon You probably know this but there is a way to use stripper. First step is to get the surface very clean particularly of grease oil etc which insulates it from the stripper. Then score the paint almost to the metal in hachures which allows the stuff to get under the gunk etc. And lastly put it on as thick as you can and let it sit. I took the paint off a Mulliner Bentley's roof in one hit this way. The paint was so thick I was able to take two leaves out of the rear springs with the reduction in weight!!! Well maybe not but I remember my wife and I lifting the roll of paint off and it was very heavy for both of us. Good news about the rust. Sometimes these cars have bodies moulded in paint with a substructure of rust to support it. Also watch for body lead at the front around the parking lights. The factory often used it to correct imperfect pressings. | ||
| Jon Rothwell Unregistered guest Posted From: 61.9.128.174 |
Thanks to everyone for the advice on this issue. Right now I am about 1/3 of the way through removing the paint so I thought I'd share my experiences for those who might be mad enough to contemplate doing this in the future. My car has lots of fillers and bog used to hide a multitude of panel repairs, on top of that the paint has been redone 3 or 4 times so is very thick. Cross hatching the paint to metal before applying stripper is the way to go, then even the bog will (eventually) come off. I tried AP608 stripper, which is good stuff but smells so bad it stank the whole house out for days, so now I'm just using plain polystrippa, which is nearly as good and easier on the nose. Any sort of mechanical sanding is a waste of time, the paint is so thick that it takes ages to get through it, plus you have the problem of friction and scoring of the panels. Once you get through the paint and hit a patch of lead the sander binds and just rips the lead out in molten chunks, trust me I only did this once! My alloy panels are rippled enough as it is (under the layer of bog), so I couldn't take the risk of gouging them with a high speed sander. Allow around $80-$100 per panel in paint stripper and also about 6-8 hours per panel, assuming that your car is as bodged up as mine. After I have removed the paint from the panel I hand sand it with a wet sanding block, and wash it with water, this is to get all residues off and in order to polish the panel. Then I put the car in the sun for a few hours to dry it out (plenty of sun in the northwest). The last step is to coat it with Lanotec, (a lanolin based compound which seals the metal). Lanotec is easily removed with thinners prior to painting, but is very effective in sealing the metal against moisture. I don't intend to remove the windows until the last moment as the interior is staying put, so I'm leaving a 10mm gap around them. I estimate about a year to get all the paint off and weld the rust (not too much thankfully), about another year to prepare, perfect and primer each panel ready for paint, and about 4 days to actually put the paint on. That may sound like a lot but it will be mostly weekends and evenings, and this is not the only car I am doing. As a matter of interest I noticed some old filler on this car that was a light blue, and very soft with soft blue fibres. I don't know if asbestos was used as a filler in body compounds, but I'd be willing to bet that this filler was asbestos based. This is probably something to be very aware of when restoring a vintage car in your home workshop. For details of the rebuild please go to http://www.nw-limo.com and follow the link to the Bentley rebuild page. | ||
| Richard Treacy Prolific User Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 36 Registered: 4-2003 |
Hi John, Hmmn. How about shortening your project plan to, say, 2-3 months ? I took less for my R-Type and even less on the T-Series repaints when I did them, and they are both still pristine many years later and all the better for it: bare metal stripping, etch primer and primer immediately a must, clear over base metallic a few days later at the very most etc. OK, I had no rust or dings to deal with, but the principle stands; a good job done thoroughly but quickly is best. Any longer and we will no doubt see advertisements for re-rusted parts in boxes for sale. I have witnessed this phenomenum too many timeson on several marques including Bentleys. The mechanical parts will clap out over the suggested timeframe anyhow. And besides, will our monsters be legal in a few years anyhow ? I hope so, but... My 20 cents worth. RT. |
